Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 48 (1) 2020   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2020.48.1.081-090

Annotation:  Early Upper Paleolithic Serpentine Ornaments from Ust-Karakol, Northwestern Altai Unshaped Bone Tools from Denisova Cave, Altai The Sartan Upper Paleolithic Assemblages of the Northwestern Altai Stages in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene Peopling of Lake Bolshoye Ushkovskoye Shore, Kamchatka Fishing in the Early Holocene Human Ecosystem of the Northern Angara Region: Findings from Stratifi Late Bronze Age Smelting and Processing Furnaces of the Eastern Variant of the Pakhomovskaya Culture Late Bronze Age Petroglyphs of Unyuk Mountain, in the Minusinsk Basin Tagar Artifacts at the Stavropol State Museum Reserve (G.N. Prozritelev’s Collection) An Early Pazyryk Kurgan at Khankarinsky Dol, Northwestern Altai: Chronology and Attribution of Artif The Triquetras from the Filippovka Kurgans, Southern Urals Early Iron Age Carpenter Tools from the Altai and Adjacent Territories A Comparative Analysis of Structural and Developmental Trends at Major Cheptsa Fortifi ed Sites in t Ancestors of the Oriental Horse in Eurasia: Origin and Distribution Regional Features of the Traditional Clothing of Ukrainians and Belarusians in the South of the Russ Collection Related to the Omaguaca Indians from the Pucara de Tilcara Fortress, Northwestern Argenti   

Tagar Artifacts at the Stavropol State Museum Reserve
(G.N. Prozritelev’s Collection)

Y.A. Prokopenko

Institute of Humanities, North-Caucasus Federal University, Pushkina 1, Stavropol, 355009, Russia

This article introduces 16 bronze weapons and horse harness items representing the Tagar culture (a dagger, ten knives, bits, a cheekpiece, an axe, a celt, and a mirror) from the Minusinsk Region, collected by G.N. Prozritelev in the early 1900s. The objective of this study is to describe them and to assess their chronology. The dagger and the three knives exemplify the animal style of 500-300 BC. The cross-guard of the dagger is shaped like two oppositely facing bird heads separated by a spiral scroll. The pommels of the knives are decorated with figurines of a standing ram, a standing donkey, a ring, a roll, a drop-shaped slit, etc. The handles of two knives are decorated with a band consisting of oblique hatches, two rows of triangles, and a hoof sign. Based on the data, certain artifacts (the dagger, the knives, the cheekpiece, and the mirror) date to 600-300 BC. The axe, the celt, the bits, and possibly a massive knife with a bird’s head at the junction of the handle and blade may date to 700-500 (possibly even 800-500) BC. A considerable scatter of dates suggests that the artifacts come from different sites. They may have been part of a single hoard whose separate items span a chronological range between 700 or even 800 to 400 BC.

Keywords: Collection, Tagar culture, animal style artifacts, bronze weapons, horse harness